High plateau Hochreit - raised bog

Description

Hochreit plateau - high moor

The almost 10-hectare high moor (Leckermoor) is characterized by a peculiar flora. Mainly yellow-brown and reddish peat mosses and mountain pines (mountain pines). Fed by precipitation and only slowly drained, a bog complex several meters high has developed here, whose flora is one of the specialists on such nitrogen and phosphorus-poor sites. The high level of waterlogging and the acidity of the soil have created a biocoenosis that reacts sensitively to disruptive interventions (especially drainage). The low thermal conductivity of the peat mosses is a microclimatically unfavorable factor for the raised bog plants; the occurrence of plants from the far north (sundew, rosemary heather) indicates this "cold" location. Bogs are particularly important as archives of vegetation history: the pollen of earlier plant worlds is preserved in the peat deposits; the science of pollen analysis can prove the changes in vegetation in the course of climate history from such bog deposits. We can only preserve valuable biocoenoses and scientifically significant landscapes for the future by protecting the peatlands as much as possible.

 

 

Starting point of the tour

Goestling Raiffeisenbank

Route description High plateau Hochreit - raised bog

Right at the beginning of the hike, there is the statue of St. Nepomuk with a canopy on the Ybbs bridge. The circular hiking trail leads over the B 31 to the Mandl - Scheiblechner inn.

In the parking lot, a passage leads to B 25, which you cross and continue along the signposted asphalt road to a nearby hill to the Bernlehen farmhouse. At the farmhouse, a field path first leads right to the forest edge. On a little-used forest road, head uphill past a memorial stone cross. After about 45 minutes you reach an asphalt road and the high plateau Hochreit. Immediately to the left above lies the Großschöntal farmhouse. After the farmhouse, the return route leads back to the fork in the road. Following the asphalt road downhill, you pass the Kleinschöntal and Grub farmhouses to the next intersection. Keeping left, after about 250 m on the asphalt road, turn left onto a field path. Along the forest edge, you reach the Obereck farmhouse (825 m above sea level). The circular hiking trail leads downhill on the asphalt road to the transformer hut. Keeping left past the Hintereck farmstead, the road leads downhill into a hollow, where after a bridge it goes uphill again to the Riesen farm. Over a farm road and a short meadow path that connects the farm road with another gravel road, you reach the beautifully located Seisen property.

From the Seisen property, a gravel road leads right to the edge of the forest; at a cattle gate, turn left and follow the forest edge path to the Hochtal farmhouse. Immediately in front of or above the farm is a good rest opportunity. Not far from the Hochtal farmstead is the raised bog (“Leckermoor”, 860 m above sea level), which you circle keeping right (duration: about 3/4 hour). After circling the bog, continue on the asphalt road past the Hochtal farmhouse to a hollow. After a bridge, the return trail leads slightly uphill, then left and from there right to the Ablass property. Between house and garage, continue a short descent over a meadow path, then follow a forest path to the Steinbachschlag farmhouse. From there, take the asphalt road downhill to the first hairpin turn. At the hairpin, a forest path ascends on the left to the Groß and Klein Buchberg farmhouses and from the farmhouses an asphalt road descends. At the chapel, the mountain road merges into B 25, on which you walk about 100 m in the direction of the Kögerlwirt inn and immediately after the bridge turn left over the Ybbs footbridge and return to the starting point after about 1 km.